


Rose

by LadyKnightSkye



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, F/M, M/M, Willow AU, love pollen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-29
Updated: 2020-01-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:53:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22012138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyKnightSkye/pseuds/LadyKnightSkye
Summary: Rose Tico was just an ordinary woman trying to recover from her sister's untimely death. She wasn't a hero, wasn't a freedom fighter, or a sorcerer, or anything else.That is, until she finds a mysterious baby on the bank of a river.When hunters crash through her village, she must embark on a quest to deliver the Child to the Mandalorian Knights who will keep it safe. On her way she encounters a wandering elf woman, a duo of slapstick Resistance fighters, and a princess who should be Queen. Standing in her way is the evil King Snoke, his loyal general Pryde, Magus Kylo Ren, and High Sorcerer Hux.But things aren't always what they seem, and maybe, just maybe . . . well, when there's love pollen involved, anything might happen.
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Rose Tico, Poe Dameron/Finn, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 19
Kudos: 46





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> It's a Willow AU, y'all.

Rose Tico looked across her fields, proud of what she’d accomplished. A lot of the other villagers had volunteered to help her with her planting, but she was bound and determined that she would be able to do it by herself. She needed to do it by herself. “I did it, Paige. I did it.”

Paige couldn’t hear her, but Rose knew her sister was smiling at her anyway. 

Trudging back to her hut, she knocked the dirt off of her shoes, and opened the door. Since the early spring chill was still in the air, she’d left the fire banked. After poking it back to life, she began preparing her evening meal. It was a simple thing, but in the dark days since her sister’s passing, the nightly ritual of preparing her food gave Rose some comfort. After leaving the soup to bubble away over the fire, she went down to the river to fetch more water for her evening bath. The sun had yet to set, but the moon was out when she reached the edge of the water. 

“What the?” she asked softly, her eyes widening.

A baby stared up at her from the water. 

Well, not from _in_ the water. It sat on a mat of grass and leaves, but the little thing looked utterly dejected. Big brown eyes stared up at her from a wrinkled green face. Large elfin ears swept down to little shoulders. It was dressed in a simple sack-like brown robe, but wore no shoes or hat. “Poor thing!” she cried out, gingerly reaching for the creature.

The little one cooed sadly, a hooting sound that broke Rose’s heart. “Come on, let’s get you warm!”

She strode quickly back to her home, and in short order had the little one sitting in front of the fire. She pulled one of Paige’s shirts out, and fashioned a new robe for the little one to wear. When her soup was done, she fed the baby until its little eyes began to droop. She checked its diaper, and discovered that the little one was a male. “Poor little boy,” she murmured, though she could tell quite vividly the this was no little boy. 

That was the first night in a long time that Rose Tico didn’t fall asleep all by herself. 

* * *

Far away, in a dark castle set against dark mountains, a king spewed hatred from misshapen teeth and twisted lips. “It’s just a baby! How could you mongrels lose a baby!”

The two mongrels in question cringed. Both were tall and slim, young men just entering the prime of their lives. They were both pale and dressed in black, though the red-headed one was dressed in the robes of a human sorcerer and the dark-haired one was dressed in the armor of an elfin Magus. Neither one cringed at the roaring disapproval being leveled their way. “The nursemaid smuggled it out. She took it across the Midrim River. Apparently it was given to a Mandalorian Knight known as Din Djarin. Our hunters ran him and his companions down near the edge of the kingdom, but the baby escaped. We know not how,” the sorcerer explained. His voice was light, his tone subservient. 

“And the Mandalorian Knight?” the king snarled.

“He escaped as well, helped by the Resistance,” the Magus answered, his dark voice rolling through the audience chamber. 

“So,” the king sneered, “I have lost not just the Child, but also the warriors who tried to defend it.”

The two men kneeling before him shared a look. “It is good then, that I have asked General Pryde to return and help you two find that child.”

“But, Your Majesty -“ the sorcerer began.

“Silence!” the king roared, throwing out a hand. The sorcerer cried out as he was thrown down the hall. The Magus froze, unwilling to court the king’s black rage. “You have both failed me! I relied on you two, my sons where I had none! And you have both proven yourselves useless!”

“You Majesty,” another voice said down the echoing hall. “You called for me.”

The king’s face smoothed into a smile. “Ah yes, General Pryde! I have a task for you. These two need help finding the Child.”

“The Child of prophesy? The one who would bring about your downfall?” Pryde pushed as he approached. He was an older man, tall and slim. He had the stately patrician handsomeness of the aristocracy that put him at odds with the Magus’s unconventional looks and the sorcerer’s vulgar coloration. Of course, that all matched their situations - Pryde’s family had been human nobility for generations, while the Magus was a half-elf whose mother was a princess and whose father was a reformed smuggler. The sorcerer was the bastard child of another noble family. Pryde was aware of all of this, and knew how to work it to his advantage. 

“Yes,” the king snarled. “Find the Child. Return it to me. You are all dismissed.”

The three left the audience chamber. As they strode down the dimly lit halls, Pryde turned to the younger men, and gave them an arch look. “You have displeased King Snoke.”

The Magus’s face never moved, but hatred blazed in his eyes as he pulled on his helm. It covered his face completely. The sorcerer sneered. “We had it under control.”

“Did you?” Pryde pushed. “I’m not so sure, Sorcerer Hux. Are you, Magus Ren?”

“What do you propose we do now?” the Magus snarled.

“We go beyond the edges of our kingdom into the Wildlands,” Pryde said as he continued on towards the front entrance. “We find the Child, and return it to the King.”

* * *

Rose woke the next morning, refreshed and ready to face the day. The little one had slept at her side, curled up into the crook of her arm. She smiled as he blinked open his big eyes. “Good morning!”

The baby gurgled at her. She giggled back. Rose by nature had always leaned towards being a happy person, but the last few months had taken their toll. There was a Paige-shaped hole in her heart, and very little had been able to fill it. But the little one filled at least a part of the hole, which Rose found herself ever grateful for. “Come on, let’s make some breakfast.”

She set the little one up on her table as she pulled out her basket of oats. The groats had to be ground up a little in order to cook down and be edible, but she found the little one’s company pleasant as she bent to the task. “And now, we feed the chickens.”

The little one toddled along behind her as she went about her morning chores. They fed the chickens first, and she couldn’t help but smile and laugh at the little one’s reaction to chickens. He seemed at once awed and upset by the creatures. However, after a few moments, he started running around chasing them. He was especially taken with Rose’s prized Crest Rooster, a venerable creature of black and white with a crazed mop of feathers on his head. Rose had named the chicken Jester because his crow sounded like someone laughing. 

Once the chickens were finished, onward they went to the cow. The little one waited patiently as Rose milked ole Bessy, and then went over to the pigs. The sow was expecting soon, and the boar would need to go back to the Antilles farm soon as well. Rose would have plenty of food come wintertide, and probably a few extra piglets to sell. She explained all of this to the Child, who seemed to absorb everything she said with an air of a sage old man in a tiny body. “Come on,” she finally said, “the oatmeal should be done.”

Back inside they went, and they ate their bowls of oatmeal. The little one especially liked his with a little honey. “So, what’s your name?” she mused aloud, nursing her morning cup of caf. 

The little one made no reply.

Pursing her lips, Rose contemplated her options. “Too easy to think you’d tell me, enh? Well, how about . . . Dag? Dag’s a good name.”

When she heard no sound of disagreement, she nodded. “Dag it is. Come on then, Dag. We have crops to plant.”

Work that day passed Rose by much quicker than it had been. Instead of dwelling on what she had lost, she was busy talking. It had been hard in the dark days following Paige’s death to talk to anyone. Oh, their friends in the village tried. She died fighting for the Resistance, they said. She died a hero, others would chime in. None of that helped Rose, though. She’d been left behind at home, tending to the land and raising the animals while Paige desperately fought against the predations of King Snoke and his dark horde. Living so close to the land, she didn’t care one wit for a war taking place on the other side of the Wildlands. She didn’t care about humans, or elves, or Magi or sorcerers. 

But no one understood that. They were so busy building up an image of Paige that was dashing and gallant. They didn’t remember how Paige hated cabbage or wrinkled her nose when she laughed. They didn’t know all of Paige’s fears or dreams. They saw a girl who was going to save the world, and the life that had been cut short. They didn’t see the sister left alone. 

They just didn’t see. 

But the little one couldn’t care less about any of that, and it was this same obliviousness that made it easy to talk. To pour out her sorrows to Dag, and to share all the bile that had been bubbling up from beneath her heart. To open up the wound that had only scabbed closed, but had yet to begin to heal. She cried, oh how she wept, but it was good. Her heart felt lighter, freer. “. . . and so that’s how I got here,” she finished, “pouring my heart out to an infant . . . whatever you are.”

Dag cooed.

Rose laughed, her merriment rising to the heavens. She finished her work, and Dag toddled along after. Their evening routine was the same as the night before - bathing, eating, and a quiet moment by the fire - before they retired for sleep. Another three days would pass the same way until the day that hunters would come to D’qar Village.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose becomes the hunted.

D’qar Village was on the larger side, as it was home to about forty families. It was the last day of the week, and that meant that everyone got together for a market. Sometimes members of the Resistance would come in to trade goods, but most of the time it was just the various village families coming together to trade their goods. Rose had considered not coming out, but she really wanted to see if Alana Pava had any chicks she was ready to part with. So she bundled up the little one, and off into town they went. 

The first villager to see her was none other than Wedge Antilles himself. Known far and wide for his exploits during the last Imperial War, he was the closest thing to a celebrity the village had. “Rose! What’ve you got there?”

She gave him a bright smile. “I found him in the river. He was just . . . floating down it. I couldn’t let him stay out in the wild.”

Antilles nodded with a frown. “Let me see him.” He held out his hands, and she allowed him to take the little one. “Well, hello there. He has the look of a type of elf about him.”

“I mean,” she said in reply, “I kind of figured that? But I . . . it’s been nice having a little one around the house. His name is Dag.”

“Dag! A good name,” Antilles said as he handed the little one back. “Well, Rose, I wish you luck with him.”

Rose nodded as the older man walked off, and then she went in search of the Pavas. It wasn’t hard to find them - they were the only family that enjoyed breeding chickens, so all one had to do was to follow the sounds of irritated birds. Dag seemed especially taken with the chickens, and his big brown eyes were riveted on them. Everyone else was quite taken with him in return, mostly because he was absolutely adorable. The matrons cooed over the young one, giving Rose advice for the care and feeding of children, while the young of the village enticed the little one to smile at them by bribing the Child with food and funny faces.

Now, in other villages it would probably be notable that someone shows up one morning with a new child in tow, but for the people of D’qar . . . not so much. Due to their location and affiliation with the Resistance, they often encountered youths fleeing the Kingdom beyond the forest. Anyone with even a smidge of elven blood was at risk beneath the heel of King Snoke, so children that showed elven blood had to be hidden. The Wildlands were naturally a good hiding place, and D’qar was one of the few villages that dotted the forest. Rose’s little Dag was only the latest in a long line of new residents. 

As it turned out, the Pavas had a few birds for trade, so Rose ended up obtaining another rooster and three good hens. Alana agreed to deliver them to Rose’s home later than afternoon, and Rose would trade several small appliances that she’d built. She had been learning magic from the village elder before Paige was killed, and had learned enough to enchant objects to work as she needed. The Pavas were especially interested in her curious little machine that brewed tea and caf perfectly. 

“I see you have a new little one,” Alana said kindly as she separated out the chosen chickens. “Are you going to keep him?”

Rose looked down at Dag and smiled. “I don’t know, but for right now I will happily care for him. I mean, I don’t know if I’m ready for a child permanently, well, not having a husband you know . . .”

Alana gave her a droll look. “You and I both know there are plenty of women who take care of multiple children with no man of the house. Or other woman for that matter.”

The younger woman shrugged. “I know, but . . . I always imagined it. That I would have a man.”

“The perfect man?” Alana teased gently.

She blushed. “Well . . . yes. Kind and sweet, you know? Someone who doesn’t mind how . . . loud . . . I can be.”

Now the village matron looked displeased. “Now Rose Tico, I know you’re not still stinging over that Lawson fellow. He was a cad out after one thing. It’s good that you put him off.”

Yeah, but it still stung that the man had not wanted her. The easiest man at the Wildlands Faire, and he’d spent five minutes with her before declaring that she was simply too loud and obnoxious to have sex with. Not court, _to fuck_. It had deeply wounded Rose. “Still.”

Alana sighed, but smiled at the younger woman. “Someday, Rose my lass, you’ll find a man worthy of you. But take it from me - he may not be what you want, but he’ll be what you need.”

“Thank you,” she whispered shyly. “I’ll have that caf brewer to you first thing in the morning.”

Dag cooed as they walked off, and Rose meandered over to where Jeralt Sonin was cooking up meat. He was the wealthiest man in the village, with a herd of cattle that outnumbered the people in the village itself. He sold the cattle in both the Kingdom and the Wildlands, and every other week would slaughter a plump steer and cook it up for the village to eat during market day. He gave it away for free, and the only stipulation was that each person only got one portion. No one minded, too aware that he could easily ask for payment that the vast majority of the village could not make. There were families that lived for the alternate market days since that was the only meat they may consume that week. 

“Good morning!” Jeralt boomed. “I see you have a new little one. River child or forest child?”

“River,” she replied. “I hope you don’t mind that we’ve come for our share.”

“Of course not!” he bellowed happily. “Here you go! My wife got in spices from the Reaches. Tell me how you like them on the meat.”

Rose took a bite, and the flavor of the meat exploded on her tongue. “This is good!” she cried as she held out a piece to the Child. The little one slurped up the offering, and then whined for more. “I think Dag likes it too.”

Jeralt chuckled, and then his eyes turned wistful. “It’s good to see you smile again, Rose.”

That smile froze, but unlike before, the reminder of her grief neither angered nor saddened her. She just didn’t realize that she was . . . smiling. That she was . . . happy. “Thank . . . thank you.”

Jeralt smiled, and nodded. “Go enjoy your food.”

She nodded and walked over to the tables that were set up for eating. She sat Dag down on the surface, and ended up feeding him tiny morsels of her food as well as his portion. She was still off balance, disoriented by the conversation she’d had with Jeralt. Again, not because it was bad, because she felt like she should still be mourning Paige, but because she had gotten to the point that she thought she would never truly heal. The world was a dark and lonely place, or at least that’s what she had begun to think over the long days she’d spent without her sister. Yes, Paige had been in the Resistance, but the nearest Resistance camp was not far from the village, or at least it had been while Paige was in it. 

But here she was, smiling again. Laughing again. She looked at a Dag with no small amount of gratitude. “Thank you, Dag. You saved my life.”

Dag gurgled, a small smile crossing his lips. He opened his mouth again, and she laughed as she fed him another strip of meat. 

However, the idyll did not last long. 

“ _Hounds!_ “

Rose’s head whipped up, and she saw people running from the west. From the direction of the Kingdom. “Hunters,” she whispered as she gathered up Dag. 

Quickly she sprinted for the farm, determined to get to one of the fortified cellars dotted around the village. However, before she could, a man on a great black stallion broke through the trees. She shrieked, ducking back away from the creature, and weaving away from its path. It blocked the cellar outside of the Antilles home, but she knew that she could probably get to Sonin’s cellar easily. She just had to hope that she could outrun hounds and steeds.

Something flexible and long wrapped around her ankle. With another shriek, she went down, trying her best to land on her side so that she wouldn’t hurt Dag. She looked up, dark eyes wide with terror. She stared up at the man on the stallion, her blood icing as she realized who she was looking at. 

To look at him, one probably wouldn’t assume that he had the power he purportedly did. Oh, the cruelty was writ across his handsome face plain enough to see. His blue eyes were glacier cold, his skin sickly pale, and his hair flaming red against it all. The unrelieved black of his robes did nothing to soften the sinister cast of his gaze, and a face that could have been handsome was rendered monstrous by the look of cold calculation in his eyes. 

Rose tried to get up, but realized that the thing around her ankle was an ensorcelled rope. One of the most basic tricks a new sorcerer was taught. However, the control this man had was legendary. “Sorcerer Hux,” she whispered.

He cocked his head. “Hand over the child.” Even his voice was icy.

She froze for only a second, but then exploded into action. She grabbed a nearby rock, and flung it at the sorcerer. She didn’t look to see if it connected, only desperately tried to disengage from the rope. A sharp yelp told her that she’d made contact, and the ensorcelled rope went slack. She yanked her foot from the trap and went running to the north. She couldn’t’ take shelter in the village - they wanted Dag. She had to go somewhere else, anywhere else. 

The Resistance.

* * *

“What do you mean you lost it?!” Kylo Ren hissed, too low for their minder - excuse me, their _ally_ , to overhear. “Dammit Hux!”

Hux cut the Magus a nasty look. “I got closer than you have so far!”

Kylo snarled behind his helm, but ultimately did not reply to that. The two of them had bickered incessantly with one another ever since they’d first met. Neither one of them had been in a place to consider one another friends at first, and by the time they had settled enough to contemplate even having allies, they had already established a firm dislike of one another. Hux was driven to overcome his bastard status, and Kylo offended him on a soul deep level. Kylo desired to be loved and accepted, and though he’d never admitted it to anyone, somehow everyone still seemed to know. “It doesn’t matter who catches the damn thing, what matters is we do it,” he finally said.

Hux sniffed, and daintily wiped at the blood tricking from his brow. “The woman had good aim. I’m ashamed to say that she caught me unawares.”

He snorted. “Is it really a surprise? You’re not trained for combat.” It was the closest that Kylo had ever come to excusing Hux’s behavior, but something about Pryde instinctively set Kylo on the defensive. Hux was a known entity, a known evil as it were. He’d much rather continue to spar and compete with Hux than try to feel his way around Pryde. 

Hux cast him a look, but Kylo wasn’t sure what it was supposed to mean. “No, I’m not. I’m supposed to stand up on a hill overlooking a battle. Be that as it may, I’ve got an idea of where the girl went, but it’s not good.”

“And where, pray tell, is she going?”

“There’s a Resistance camp located somewhere in this vicinity,” Hux said slowly. “We were in the middle of trying to suss out where it might be when His Majesty summoned us to deal with the Child. Most of these villagers probably are affiliated in some way with the Resistance itself.”

Kylo looked around at the village. Under his command, the Knights of Ren had not demolished the village as was their usual wont. The people had fled into underground cellars, and though he was tempted to force them out of their hiding places, he ultimately knew that it would do no good. Resistance warriors would have fought back, not run even if they were horribly outnumbered. There were no Resistance fighters here, and he found that he did not relish dealing with the sighing and the screaming should he force the issue. “Then we let the Hounds continue to try to find the Child.”

“Agreed,” Hux murmured.

* * *

Rose ran for as long as she could, but eventually adrenaline lost out to fatigue. She wasn’t entirely sure how long she ran through the woods that day, but it was a fair distance that she’d crossed by the time she slowed down. Dag was looking about himself curiously, apparently content to move no matter that this was a life and death situation for them both. Sweat trickled down her face and neck, and she felt a damp spot on her back as she slowed down to a walk rather than her panicked run. “Okay, I think we’re in the clear,” she murmured. 

“Are you so sure?”

Whipping around, Rose spied a matronly woman approaching. She was dressed in a simple set of trousers and tunic, the tunic belted with leather. However, while the garments were simple, they were richly embroidered with bright colors. The leather belt was embossed with knot work designs that centered around the symbol of the Resistance - the Starbird. “Who are you?”

The matronly woman smiled. She was about Rose’s height, and shaped rather similarly to this her. “My name is Leia Organa.”

Rose blinked rapidly. “You mean . . . you’re the leader of the Resistance.”

Leia nodded. “Come on now, let’s get you safe. Snoke’s lackeys are thick in the woods today.”

“I know,” she murmured with a grimace. “They’re attacking D’qar Village.”

Leia nodded. “I’ve already sent a small group of fighters to help run them out. We’ll make sure the villagers are okay.”

“Thank you.” Rose followed along obediently as the older woman led her deeper and deeper into the forest. The trees began to space out more and more as they grew older and older. Stories in the village said that the forest used to house true elves, not the human elven bloods or the subspecies that existed today. No, the old true elves were fearsome creatures, seven feet tall with willowy bodies, the old stories said. They had long faces and flat noses. They were unearthly, beautiful in a way that no one could truly comprehend. They were also all gone now, long turned into elven bloods and the various species of minor elf. 

However, Rose was ejected from her reverie by their arrival into the camp of the Resistance. There were maybe a hundred people milling about, doing various things. Some of them were caring for horses, others cooking a meal. Still others were working on weapons, shining and sharpening. No one paid them particular mind as they walked through the camp to the central pavilion, and Rose felt her nerves grow a little taut. This was where Paige had died. She had been a trained blacksmith, an expert at crafting arrowheads. She must have been working in a camp similar to this one when she died.

Dag tugged on a strand of hair that had escaped her bun, and she smiled down at him. “It’s okay,” she said, “we’re okay.”

Leia looked back at her, but only smiled. She led Rose into the pavilion, and the younger woman realized that these were the older women’s private quarters. There was a bed in the corner or the square room piled high with furs and woven blankets. A large trunk sat at the foot of the bed, and another large upright trunk displayed more formal dresses. A table sat just off to the side, and Leia gestured for Rose to take one of the two chairs. “You can put the little one down,” she said, “He’s safe here.”

Rose did as she was bid, and Dag began to wander around. “So first, what’s your name?” 

“Oh! Rose. Rose Tico.”

Leia’s eyes sharpened. “Your sister was Paige Tico.”

“Yes.”

Leia nodded. “Her loss was a sad day for all of us. I imagine for you most of all.”

Rose licked her lips. “I came here because I think the hunters in the village were after Dag.”

“The little one?”

Rose nodded, and Leia turned to contemplate the little one. “He is strange. I’ve never seen his species of elf kind. But I do have a suspicion about why King Snoke wants him. There’s a prophesy about a child that will be born to destroy Snoke. The Child will rally the strongest Magi and the greatest sorcerers to his cause and vanquish Snoke to usher in an age of peace.”

“But how would we know?” Rose asked.

“The Star of the old Magi Order would appear on him.”

Rose, who had noticed a strange birth mark on Dag, looked down at the child. “Dag has a strange marking on his shoulder.”

Leia nodded with a frown. “I thought so. He also fits the description of the Child given to me by some of my best scouts. They helped the Child and his old protectors escape from Snoke’s forces before. Snoke will stop at nothing to kill this child. And the Resistance isn’t strong enough to stop him.”

Rose felt her blood run cold.

Leia held up a hand. “But, there is hope. On the other side of the Kingdom are the lands controlled by the Mandalorian Knights. According to my scouts, the Mandalorians have protected that child since his birth. They are also a force that Snoke’s armies have yet to crush. The Child’s best chance is with them.”

“So we have to get him to the Mandalorians.” Rose frowned. “How?”

“Well,” said a voice from the entrance, “I’m glad that you made it out okay.”

Rose and Leia both turned to see the village elder - Amilyn Holdo - standing in the doorway. Her regal gown of lavender trimmed with silver embroidery marked her status, and Rose smiled at her with delight. “Elder Holdo!”

“Rose,” she replied. “I’m glad Leia was able to find you.”

“I was just telling her about the child,” Leia said. “And I’m glad you showed up. She’s going to need outfitting.”

“Outfitting?” Rose echoed.

“Yes,” Leia said. “Because you will be the one to take the Child and return him to the Mandalorian Knights.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all of the lovely comments and kudos! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
> 
> And feel free to come hang out with me on Twitter! I'm @LadyKnightSkye over there!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose is a horrible judge of character.

Rose was still reeling hours later from what Leia had said to her. Take Dag to the Mandalorian Knights? Go through the Wildlands, across the Kingdom, and over the Mid Rim River all while being chased by High Sorcerer Hux? Was Leia mad?

“I can’t do this,” she said for the millionth time to Dag. “I really cannot do this.”

“Why?”

Rose startled, not expecting a masculine voice to come from right behind her. She whipped around to see a young man with dark skin and serious dark eyes giving her a small smile. “Who are you?”

“I’m Finn,” he answered. “I’ve volunteered to go with you.”

“Oh,” Rose said inanely. “Oh.”

He gave her a cocky grin. “What, you thought Leia would send you all by yourself?”

“Hey, move along!” came another voice from outside. Finn moved, and in popped another head. “I’m Poe. Poe Dameron.”

Rose finally stood up from where she was sitting on a stool in her temporary lodgings, and turned to face them fully. She bit her lip but nodded. “I’m Rose. Rose Tico.”

The two men shared a grin. “Don’t worry,” Poe said warmly, “We’ll help you get the tyke where he needs to go.”

“Yeah, I was just thinking about that,” she said softly. “I’m not . . . I’m not sure I can do it, even with your help.”

Poe pursed his lips. He finally came all the way in and asked, “May I?” with a gesture to the stool. 

Rose nodded, and walked over to perch on the cot. Finn stayed where he was. “Look,” Poe said, “tell me again, how did you get away from your village? How did you get away from Sorcerer Hux?”

“Um, I escaped from him by throwing a rock,” she replied.

Poe gave her a small half smile. “By throwing a rock. You, a little village girl from tiny D’qar Village managed to get away from /Armitage Hux/, Grand Master Sorcerer, second only to King Snoke in power, by throwing a rock. That takes some guts.”

Rose blinked. She’d never thought about it like that. “Oh.”

“Yeah.” Finn grinned. “You’ve got this.”

Rose looked down at Dag, who up until then had been content to listen to the conversation taking place over his head with silent solemnity. As she met his eyes, the child cooed at her. “Okay. I can do this.”

“Poe!” a feminine voice cried from outside.

Poe called, “In here Connix!”

A young blonde woman barreled inside. “You’ve got to go now.”

“But we’ve barely gathered our supplies -“ Finn said, but was interrupted by a shake of her head.

“Hounds,” she replied. “About a half a mile out.”

“They’ll be tracking my scent,” Rose said suddenly. “We need to got to the river. It’s our best bet.”

The Mid Rim River ran a meandering, circular course around the Kingdom. Legend had it that Princess Leia’s father - the great Magus Anakin Skywalker - carved the river out to help protect his lands. Skywalker had been notorious for his paranoia when it came to the safety of his family. The old ones scoffed at the idea, well aware that the Mid Rim River had always run its current course. Leia had told her the reason that they couldn’t use the river to travel was because of the outposts along it would spot them and force them to come ashore. The little one had been beneath their notice, and based on his green skin and the original brown robes he’d worn, had probably blended into the river too well to be seen.

Poe nodded. “Grab your pack. It’s already loaded.”

She did as she was told, and allowed Connix to help her with a baby carrier that had been rigged up for her. It was really just an extra long piece of cloth, but there was a trick to how it was wrapped around the body. Connix showed her, and she stowed Dag safely against her chest. He snuggled close, and cooed softly. The little one understood the danger. 

Poe and Finn flanked her as they fled into the forest. “The river is about a three hour walk from here,” Finn said. “The others are going to hold off the hounds as long as they can, so we should make it.”

Rose nodded, and got down to the work of walking quickly. They didn’t run - more chance of injury or mistakes there - but they kept up a grueling pace. Rose cleared her mind, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other. Fortunately she was used to endurance work, so after nearly three hours of hard walking, she was still barely winded. Dag had been lulled to sleep by her heartbeat and the movement of her body. 

That’s when they heard the hounds. “Damn,” Poe snapped, breaking into a jog. “Move!”

All three of them loped along, still not ready to run flat out. Tree roots and fallen logs made that too dangerous. However, the sounds of the hounds moved closer and closer. “There!”

The river was in sight. Rose made the mistake of looking back. 

Dark eyes clashed with crystalline blue.

Her breath left her body, and her heart shuddered. “Run!” she screamed, taking off as fast as she could. 

The three finally broke into a sprint, and the river bank was mere feet away when something tripped Rose. She fell, twisting again, feeling a bit of deja vu. She’d already done this today, and she was not keen on doing it again. However, apparently Sorcerer Hux was also not keen on repeating his morning’s experience either. The slithering rope that he’d enchanted to snag her traveled up her body, wrapping around her arms so that she could not move them. “Dammit!” she snapped.

Finn and Poe were nowhere to be seen, and the sorcerer approached on his horse, haughtily staring down at her from on high. This time, she felt the full force of his attention. “You’ve led us a merry little chase,” his voice held contempt and no little amount of annoyance. 

“So sorry,” she snarled. “I’ll remember to cower like a rabbit in its burrow next time.”

Something moved behind his eyes. “Such confidence. Why shouldn’t I just kill you where you, eh, lay?”

She pursed her lips, but couldn’t stop what tumbled out of her mouth. “Because you aren’t evil.”

This time, his face froze in the act of sneering, but his eyes burned. “And why do you say that?” he whispered.

“Because you could have ordered the hounds to rip the villagers apart. The Resistance were told that there were no major injuries. The last time Allegiant General Pryde came through, one of the Bey boys lost a hand and three people were mauled. And Pryde wasn’t even looking for anything, he just wanted to remind us of our _place_.”

Hux’s jaw tensed. “You,” he said softly, “are a horrible judge of character.”

An arrow whizzed out from behind a tree, startling Hux’s horse. Forced to fight his steed, Hux let go of the rope. Finn was there in a moment, helping her wiggle out of the binding. They shot off, and finally made it to the river. A boat sat waiting for them, and Poe was quick to untie it and set them sailing down river. When Rose finally looked back at the bank, Hux met her gaze once again. He nodded to her, as if to acknowledge something, but she quickly looked away, unnerved.

* * *

Hux watched the trio floating away. He was tempted to go after them, to use his enchanted rope to pull them back, but her words kept stopping him. _Because you aren’t evil_.

The poor girl didn’t know how wrong she was. He’d killed his father, murdered the man in his own bed while he’d been in the middle of tupping a maid. Hux had originally thought the poor girl had been traumatized by rape, but as soon as she had recovered from being splattered in the elder Hux’s blood, she’d propositioned him. He’d admired her self interest, but had ultimately informed her that she’d either kindly get out of his home or end up buried next to his father. Hux was evil, and he had no illusions about it. 

“Again?” Kylo growled.

“She had help this time,” Hux replied without heat.

Kylo Ren shook his head. “Dammit. Pryde is breathing down our necks as it is.”

“I know!” Hux squeezed his eyes shut. “Look, we’ll cut them off when they reach the Crossroads at Niima on the Jakku Plain. They’ll have to go through there, or through one of our patrols between here and the border.”

Jakku was an arid bit of grassland that boarded the Mid Rim River several miles upstream. The only settlement was a den of inequity called Niima, controlled by a corrupt weasel known as Unkar Plutt. The plain was too vast for them to cross without stopping at Niima to replenish supplies and purchase horses. “Alright,” Kylo finally said. “We ride to Niima.”

Hux nodded, but his eyes went back to the boat, not far into the distance on the calm river. “Ren?”

“What?”

“Do you think we’re evil?”

Kylo snorted. “We’re monsters, Hux. Why do you ask?”

Hux shook his head. “No reason.”

* * *

Very quickly, Rose decided that outside of life or death situations, Poe and Finn were lovely men who shared one brain. Not in the lovely “great minds think alike” sense, but more in the “only one of them has it at a time” sense. They bickered like school boys for a good half an hour over the best course of action from then on, and managed to somehow both decide that they had to ride the river down to where the Mid Rim swung around on the other side of the Kingdom.

“Um,” she said softly, “Supplies?”

Finn’s face fell. “We’ll have to stop at Niima.”

Poe snorted. “Either that or we learn how to become expert fishermen.” Then he squinted into the distance. “Damn.”

“What?” Finn and Rose chorused.

Poe pointed to the river bank. “Look into the trees.”

Rose squinted, as did Finn. It wasn’t obvious, but after a moment she saw it. Movement behind the first screen of trees and brush near the river. “They’re following us,” she murmured.

“We’re not hard to track,” Poe muttered. “At this rate we’ll be to Niima by night fall, and they’ll be waiting for us.”

Rose bit her lip. “What if we went on? Went to the next settlement instead?”

Finn shook his head. “The Jakku Plains are pretty big, and the next settlement would be square in the Naboo Highlands. That place is crawling with King Snoke’s men. It’s where Magus Kylo Ren’s castle is.”

“And going beyond the Highlands is definitely out of reach of our supplies, even if none of Snoke’s patrols spotted us.” Poe bit his lip. “We have no choice. We’ve got to get off the river in Niima.”

Rose glanced back to the movement shimmering behind the leaves. “What if we float past Niima? Just a little ways? Then double back after night fall?”

Poe nodded, a grin starting to form. “That might just work.”

“Then let’s do it!” Finn exclaimed. “We’ll sneak in, get some supplies, and sneak out before sun up.”

She frowned. “Will there be any merchants willing to sell to us after dark?”

The two men shared a look. “You’ve never been to Niima, have you?” Finn asked kindly.

She shook her head. “Yeah, Niima’s known for its nightlife,” Poe agreed. “After they got run out of the Dune Sea of Tatooine, the Hutts set up shop in Niima. They run it through a guy known as Unkar Plutt. He controls everything in town, and we’re bringing in his favorite treat. He’ll deal with us.”

Rose nodded, but her eyes kept going back to the figures in the trees. As her two companions broke out travel rations for a snack with the child looking on hopefully, she watched the bank. Suddenly, a clearing opened up, and she could see the two riders clearly. Magus Kylo Ren rode tall on his black stallion, his armor gleaming black. At his side, his hair gleaming like copper in the afternoon light, Sorcerer Hux kept pace easily on his own black steed. The man glanced over, and Rose knew that their gazes were meeting again. But this time, she felt no fear.

Because he wasn’t completely evil.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the lovely comments and kudos!


End file.
